The Hambach Forest Occupation with its merry bunch of forest pirates invites you to the second Skillsharing Camp we’re hosting this year! We want to carry out a second act, a part two for the skillsharing event we held this spring, during which the Hambach forest was successfully resquatted.

Furthermore, this SkillsharingCamp will also be the start of the larger „Kein Baum fällt“ („No tree is falling“) campaign. This campaign is about motivating and supporting people during the whole season for – and of – actions.

The skillsharing camp wanted to assist in resquating of the forest after the latest bigger eviction and offer different possibilities for learning and sharing. The camp held during this Autumn is offering days with different themes to learn from – and it wants to disturb, really disturb the woodcutting work starting to take place right in front of the mine.

There will be both theoretical and practical workshops, plenty of room for discussions, presentations about different topics, diverse sorts of art, culture and actions.

You are all invited – bring your own ideas, creative minds, knowledge you posses and skills you might have! This is the only way this SkillsharingCamp will thrive and succeed!

This camp aims to be an emancipatory experience for each participant. It wants to offer a chance to everyone to share our knowledge, form networks, learn from and with each other – and hopefully move one step closer to a world without authority and structures based on hierarchy: a world in which we finally take responsibility for our own actions, in which we are not bossed around and don’t boss others around but instead freely and willingly help and support each other in living in self sustainable manner without any form of discrimination.

So, what’s planned?
Those are the theme-days we are already planing: coal, both nuclear power and weapons, fracking/CO2compression, war and it’s counterpart, anti-militarism. (After all, most of these connect to same Hydras’: energy companies providing to arm industry, human right organisations and environmental groups battling with consequences of depleted uranium scattered around warfields…)

There will also be workshops around more practical matters: blockading technics, lock-ons, barricades, building with clay, climbing… and as we mentioned earlier: you are very welcome to add your own workshops to the selection!

What else to bring than myself?
If possible, please bring your own tents, sleeping-bags, camping mattresses, sensible clothes – it might be warm, but it might also be cold, windy and rainy – and practical shoes. We have only a limited number of sleeping places for visitors, and when there are many visitors – they eventually run out. Keep in mind that it’s nice and legal to sleep at the meadow occupation – but once you set your accommodation to the forest, you become a true squatter. Which means there’s always – like in all squats – a possibility of an eviction or other forms of police hasslement looming in the air. It’s impossible to say how likely or unlikely this threat is: that’s up to them, not us.

We don’t expect you to pay for your stay. But since solidarity is more than just a word, a small donation for food and necessities – such as toilet paper – we’re providing would be very helpful.

I want to help and participate already! How can I do that?
Do you have some special skills or experience you consider useful for us? If you want to take part in organising the SkillsharingCamp or you can wish to bring in your materials or ideas, please contact us via email (please – title your emails with your idea or question!) at hambacherforst@nullriseup.net or call the meadowphone: 015 7541 361 00. Don’t hesitate to call even if you’re an non-German speaker!

Calling out for specialists – legal team folks, emotional first aid pro’s and awareness people!
For the camp, we unfortunately do not have a full-blown legal team yet. Please, understand that people carrying the same huge load through countless of times can sometimes get tired. In any scenario, we will provide the most necessary basic bits, but we surely would appreciate willing hands to help building this team into a proper one!

We’re pretty good at respecting one another and taking care of fellow activists. Still, during a bigger event that brings in a good number of new folks some extra help at the fields of emotional first aid and awareness team stuff would be more than welcome. If you feel like you could contribute to that please, don’t be shy – contact us! We will of course manage simple basic structures, but like most protest sites: we only have limited capacities ourselves.

Sounds great! So, how do I get there?
If you’re wondering how to get here, click yourself to the „directions“ part of this site. You’ll find all the needed info there.

ATTENTION, though, to people hitchhiking or coming by car: thanks to advancing Mordor, the new highway opening this week and which will be in use by the time of the Skillsharing Camp DOES NOT have a direct exit to Buir anymore. For more details, check that „directions“ part of this site. It’s still easy enough to get here.